We are a mid-sized manufacturing firm that produces many different versions of our product. For each of our units, we produce a set of technical instructions, using Illustrator and InDesign. Within each instruction manual, there are pages unique to the individual unit, and pages that are universal (boilerplate) across all of our manuals. We export each complete instruction manual to PDF for printing and placement on our website. At present, we need to make a change to one of our universal pages that appears in every manual. Is there a way to apply the change across all of our manuals without opening each InDesign file separately, updating the link, and creating a new PDF? That process is obviously time consuming and labor intensive considering the volume of files that will need to be updated. As such, any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated. We would like to automate the process, even if it means updating our software or changing our method of producing instruction manuals.

The first thing that comes to mind is you might not know that you can place a page (or pages) from one InDesign document in another. I'm assuming that the universal pages are laid out all the same across the manuals. You would then make a change to the universal page ID file and then it would be updated in the placed ID file. But this would mean opening each ID file and making a new change.

The other thing that comes to mind is you can make just one page PDF and replace the others in the Acrobat files.

However, if this is something that happens a lot, it sounds like you could use the services of a scripter who specializes in creating workflows. This would be something that you make the change in one ID document, click a button, and all the PDFs with that page update.

It's well worth the money to create.

Harbs who hangs out around here is one I know. I also know another, based in Vermont, who I can hook you up with. Contact me at sandee at mac dot com and I can give you his details.